1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording cartridge that includes an ink jet recording head for discharging liquid such as ink onto a recording medium and performing recording thereon, and a liquid containing section for holding liquid to be supplied to this ink jet recording head.
2. Description of the Related Art
As conventional ink jet recording cartridges, one having configurations shown in FIGS. 27 to 33 have been known. FIGS. 27 and 29, respectively, are a sectional view of a black cartridge 10B for a black ink (B), and a plan view thereof with a lid removed. FIGS. 28 and 30, respectively, are a sectional view of a color cartridge 10C for three colors of magenta (M), cyan (C), and yellow (Y), and a plan view thereof with a lid removed. FIGS. 31 to 33, respectively, are plan views of a lid 11B of the black cartridge 10B, an inner lid 11C-2 and an outer lid 11C-1 of the color cartridge 10C, as viewed from the sides of their joint surfaces with cases 15B and 15C.
The black cartridge 10B and the color cartridge 10C include the cases 15B and 15C, respectively, that form respective ink containing chambers, the lid 11B, and the inner and outer lids 11-C1 and 11C-2, respectively. The ink containing chambers of the black cartridge 10B and the color cartridge 10C, respectively, contain absorbers 16B, 16-Y, 16C-M and 16C-C that absorb and hold the respective inks. Ink jet recording heads 20B and 20C are mounted on the bottom surfaces of the cases 15B and 15C, respectively. The cases 15B and 15C have substantially the same external shape, and the portion where each of the ink jet recording heads 20B and 20C is disposed has a shape lowered by one step (see FIGS. 27 and 28). A T-shaped inner wall is arranged within the case 15C of the color cartridge 10C, so as to partition the case into ink containing chambers of three color inks (see FIG. 30).
In both of the black cartridge 10B and the color cartridge 10C, ink (not shown) held in the absorbers 16B, 16C-Y, 16C-M and 16C-C, respectively, pass through filters 17B, 17C-Y, 17C-M and 17C-C provided at front ends of ink introducing sections 18B, 18C-Y, 18C-M and 18C-C, respectively. The ink is then supplied to the ink jet recording heads 20B and 20C through ink flow paths 19B, 19C-Y, 19C-M and 19C-C, respectively, that are formed in the ink introducing sections 18B, 18C-Y, 18C-M and 18C-C, respectively. At this time, in order to prevent air from entering the ink flow paths 19B, 19C-Y, 19C-M and 19C-C, the absorbers 16B, 16C-Y, 16C-M and 16C-C are pressed against the filters 17B, 17C-Y, 17C-M and 17C-C, respectively, by ribs 14B and 14C formed in the lid 11 and the inner lid 11-C2 so as to be brought into pressure contact with the filters 17B, 17C-Y, 17C-M and 17C-C, respectively (see FIGS. 27 and 28).
In this conventional example, a single lid 11B is provided for the black cartridge 10B, whereas two lids, i.e., the outer lid 11C-1 and the inner lid 11C-2 are provided for the color cartridge 10C. Furthermore, the constructions of these lids are also different between the black cartridge 10B and the color cartridge 10C (see FIGS. 31 to 33).
Now that ink jet recording devices are coming down in price, ink jet recording heads to be mounted thereon also face a significant challenge of reducing cost. Usually, a plurality of ink jet recording heads are mounted on a single ink jet recording device. A method for reducing the number of components of an ink jet recording head, therefore, is effective as cost-reduction measures for the ink jet recording head. Use of such measures would allow the overall cost of ink jet recording device to be significantly reduced.
The same goes for an ink jet recording cartridge. For the ink jet recording cartridge, supposing that ink jet recording head portion is a single unit, the number of components constituting the cartridge is low. Also, as seen from the cases 15b, 15C, the lid 11B, and the inner lid 11C-2 in the above-described conventional example, each of these components already has a plurality of functioning sections. Therefore, for the ink jet recording cartridge, it is very difficult to reduce the component number itself. With this being the situation, it is an effective measures for the ink jet recording cartridge to achieve commonality of components among a plurality of kinds of ink jet recording cartridges, and thereby improve production efficiency to realize cost reduction.